Larry Bird Is Also Laughing At Kobe Bryant Over His Dream Team Comments

Glenn Davis

4:06 pm, July 13th, 2012

Apparently, the Kobe-Bryant-led “Could the 2012 version of Team USA beat the Dream Team?” debate is the new “Could [dominant college team] beat [terrible pro team]?” A fair number of people don’t even seem to think it’s worth debating: and wouldn’t you know it, there is a remarkably high concentration of those people on… the Dream Team. Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley responded to the comparison of the two squads by laughing, and from the looks of things, Larry Bird did pretty much the same:

Larry Bird on whether current Olympic team could beat Dream Team: “They probably could. I haven’t played in 20 years and we’re all old now.”

There’s a line – the exact nature of it varies, but it’s always attributed to Ty Cobb – involving Cobb being asked, long after his retirement what he’d hit if he played the game “today.” He said he’d hit about .300, and the person who asked was surprised he guessed an average that low. Cobb’s response: “You’ve got to remember – I’m 73.” Clearly, that caustic streak is alive and well in sports’ living legends of today. (Of course, Jordan might be mad Bird even conceded that.)